


Blister

by katspaw



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Black Romance, Caliginous Romance | Kismesis, M/M, Zombies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-04
Updated: 2012-08-04
Packaged: 2017-11-11 11:05:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,105
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/477869
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/katspaw/pseuds/katspaw
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sollux and Eridan run into the undead that roam Alternia during the day.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Blister

**Author's Note:**

> This story was written for the HSO, based on the prompt "Monsters".

“Move over.”

“If I movve ovver any more I’m gonna fall outta here, Sol.”

Sollux huffed in exasperation. Eridan had been complaining almost nonstop that Sollux had taken the more sheltered part of the narrow crevice of rock they were huddled inside, never mind that they were both getting equally sunburned.

“You’re nowhere even clothe to falling out,” he snapped in response, wincing when Eridan pushed himself closer. His back was pressed uncomfortably against the rock wall as it was; he was going to have a nasty collection of bruises before all this was over. With any luck, so would Eridan. “You’re not even going to get burned that badly under that thtupid cape.”

Eridan clutched his cape protectively around his shoulders as though he expected Sollux to snatch it off of him at the first opportunity. “My FACE’ll get burned, and no one would want that.”

Sollux snorted and pushed back against him, trying to sit more comfortably in the small cave. “You’re right, it would be uglier than it already ith.”

Eridan scrambled to balance himself, his arm swinging out into the open sunlight as he tried to catch himself. He hissed through his teeth and lunged back at Sollux, grabbing a fistful of his shirt. “You asshole, you did that on purpose!”

Sollux didn’t bother trying to shake him off; the worst Eridan could do in such a narrow space would be to bite him or something equally juvenile. “Yeah well you detherved it. You’re the one that got uth thtuck out here to begin with.”

Eridan’s face was struggling between indignant and appalled. “I did not! You had to have a turn at ‘grub’s first FLARP campaign’, and because you’re such a fuckin noob at any gamin’ that isn’t on a computer screen I had to come FIND you. I shoulda left you to get eaten by shadow droppers or somethin, woulda served you right.”

“Go ahead and leave anytime you want,” Sollux snapped, getting tired of the whole argument. It was brutally hot even in the shade, the kind of bone-dry heat that made your throat feel dusty and raw. He wished he’d had the heart to turn down Feferi’s offer to bring him along on one of her last FLARP campaigns before they all started getting ready for enlistment – but he’d never gone along with Aradia, either, and somehow that had bothered him enough that he’d said yes.

Eridan settled down again sullenly, making a point of examining his hand for any signs of burns. Sollux rolled his eyes. There was no way two seconds of sunlight could have possibly hurt Eridan, but this sort of behavior was really nothing less than he had come to expect from his drama queen of a kismesis.

He wished there was enough room to take out his husktop. They’d talked to Feferi earlier, when it had been clear they wouldn’t be making it home before sunrise, but he kind of wanted to apologize for fucking up their game. It was frustrating enough when something virtual went wrong; real life games like FLARP, however stupid they seemed, were an even bigger deal. He didn’t realize his eyelids were drooping until Eridan spoke up again.

“You’re not going to sleep, are you?”

Sollux glowered at him. “Yeah, I might ath well. You should too. Then maybe you’ll thtop fucking bothering me with thtupid questionth.”

Eridan sniffed derisively. “Whatevver, Sol, you wouldn’t catch me sleepin dry.”

“Then don’t thleep.” Sollux bit out and turned away as much as he could. He kept accidentally scraping his horns against the rock, and it was doing nothing for his mood.

There was silence for so long he forgot that he was half-waiting for Eridan to keep arguing with him, and gradually he could feel himself drifting in and out of dreams, the daymares just unsettling enough to jerk him into wakefulness right as he was just starting to rest. It was never comfortable to sleep dry, but scrunched into a tight space with sparse shade didn’t make it any easier.

“Sol.”

He was rocketing through space, his blood felt like a shaken up soda bottle. Hs eyes squeezed and popped, and he fell down trying to gather them up again but he was blind—

“Sol, c’mon, wake up already.”

\--Covered in his own vomit and tears, his heart hammering too fast in his chest and a screaming noise as the universe whipped by---

There was a sharp elbow in his ribs suddenly, and Sollux grunted out a protest with whatever part of his mind was awake enough to function. His hands were shaking a little.

“Took you fuckin long enough,” Eridan hissed lowly. “Get a look at this and then tell me what the fuck we’re supposed to do here.”

“What?” Sollux asked stupidly. His head was pounding; the world was too bright and loud to focus properly. He’d only taken in maybe half of Eridan’s commentary, but the barely-controlled note of panic was enough to worry him.

“Look,” Eridan responded, not turning away from the entrance of their small crevice. Outside, the forest was quiet. Most of the animals in the area would be laying down sleeping or hiding from the sun just as they were. They didn’t have to worry much about an animal finding their hiding spot. The problem – and Sollux had a long, horrifying moment to reflect on what a large problem it really was – was that there were other things that went around in daylight.

“I almost wish it was rainbow drinkers,” Eridan muttered quietly to him. “They’d find us for sure, but it’d be fast.”

“I really, really wish it wath rainbow drinkerth,” Sollux said slowly, a leaden feeling sinking down into his bones.

The things moving slowly through the trees were what happened when you didn’t cull properly. Their schoolfeeding had been very clear on this point – actually, Sollux had never seen Husk Walkers before. Anyone who died in the city had their remains disposed of correctly. These mangled, decaying wrecks of trolls were leftovers from sloppy kills, maybe kids getting revenge on each other or FLARP losses. They were slow-moving, their legs dragging in a macabre shuffle through the brush. Now that Sollux was looking at them, he started to notice the smell – the reek of slow death that rolled through the woods alongside the monsters made his stomach turn.

“I’vve nevver seen ‘em before,” Eridan said quietly. Sollux leaned in to hear him better. “Heard they’re really fast when they’re huntin, though.”

“Do you think they can smell?” he asked, watching one of the walkers pause and look around. It was missing an eye, and he could see right into its skull; it had been a brownblood once. The other creatures were farther off, their jerky movements visible through the blistering curtain of sunlight that flooded the forest.

Eridan didn’t answer; he was looking around for something in his sylladex. Sollux kept his eyes warily on the Husk Walker. It seemed to be looking in their direction, but it hadn’t moved. It was beginning to seriously freak him out.

“Do you think they can feel a fuckin cullin blow?” Eridan said suddenly, and from nowhere he’d pulled out his favorite gun, the big obnoxious thing he took on FLARP trips. The diamond-shaped tip of Ahab’s Crosshairs poked out of the cave.

“What the hell are you doing?” Sollux demanded, lunging for the barrel of the gun and trying to wrestle it away from him. “The retht of them will hear uth!”

Eridan wrenched his weapon away. “Let GO, Sol, I know what I’m doin!” His voice was starting to raise.

“No, you’re being an idiot!”

The sound of their scuffle must have drawn the Husk Walker’s attention. In the middle of Sollux trying to pry Eridan’s fingers off the trigger, there was a low groaning sound from outside the cave. The two of them froze.

The monster took a staggering step towards them.

“FUCK, it thaw uth.” Sollux hissed.

Eridan jerked the gun back away from him. “Just shut up, alright?” he muttered, not looking away from the walker. “Maybe it’s just investigatin the noise.”

Sollux pushed Eridan to the side so he could sit at the opening too. “No, it definitely thaw uth, look, it’th thtill coming.”

The Husk Walker broke into a run, its one eye locked on them. Eridan was right, they were fast.  
“Shit,” he heard Eridan say, and then the monster was obliterated in a blast of blue light.

There were rumblings from the others, and Sollux could see a half dozen of the creatures limp towards them from behind the trees. There was no way they could keep fighting from their shelter; the walkers would be on them before Eridan could get two shots out. There was really only one solution.

The sun was blisteringly hot as Sollux flung himself out of the cave, Eridan’s confused shout ringing out behind him. He had to be fast. Two of the monsters came at him from the right, and he fling up a burst of energy to defend himself. They didn’t go down easily. He battered at the skull of one of the walkers before its head finally popped off its shoulders. Something tackled him from behind, and he hit the forest floor with a grunt.

Sollux had a moment of sheer terror as he realized that a walker had jumped on him and was biting his shoulder, its lower jaw flapping like a broken door against his skin. A scream ratcheted out of his throat and he twisted to shake it off, but a sudden flare of blue light burst from behind him. The Husk Walker was propelled off of him and went skidding across the ground. Sollux staggered to his feet and finished it off, its skeleton compacting with a dull crunch.

He staggered back to where Eridan was blasting at the others, watching his back as they fought. The group was down to a few stragglers when Sollux felt something heavy slam into the back of his head. His vision stuttered, black spots blooming in front of him. It looked as though one of the walkers had thrown something at him, but he couldn’t make out much before he felt his knees buckle and he sank slowly into darkness.

 

Sollux came back to consciousness slowly, a gentle rocking motion bringing him back to himself. His eyelids were glued together; it took a few tries before he blinked them open and realized the reason it was dark was that he was staring at his own palm. Someone was carrying him. His arm felt leaden and hot, but he pulled it down to his chest and straightened up a little. Eridan was frowning down at him.

“Could you not squirm so fuckin much? You’re lucky I bothered bringin you at all.”

Behind him, the sky was a pale pink, dyed with the setting sun. The air was much cooler, closer to what he was comfortable with. He wrinkled his nose, ready to bite out a comeback, only to realize that his face felt dry and sensitive. “Did you jutht keep going after we left? What the hell?” He was going to kill Eridan if he had gotten a serious sunburn. “And put me down!” he threw in as an afterthought, struggling against his kismesis’s grip.

Eridan promptly dropped him on his ass. “I got us under some tree til it wasn’t so bad, but I’vve been goin for a while, yeah.” He smirked a little. “Bet you were wishin you had a dumb cape too, huh Sol?”

“You’re a bathtard,” Sollux shot back.

“Sorry, what was that? I’m a ‘bath-tard’?”

“Thcrew you!” This was not a new insult between them, but it still got Sollux riled up just about every time. He got to his feet, brushing himself off and trying to assess the damage. His arms weren’t too badly burned, but his face felt nasty and leathery. He reached up to check how painful it was, but—

“YOU ATHHOLE.”

Eridan burst out laughing at him. “Go ahead, go show that to Fef, I bet she’ll just lovve it,” he sneered. Sollux fumed quietly as he felt gently around the edges of his sunburn. His hand had been draped over his face, leaving a large hand-shaped space of unburned skin. He could only imagine how fucking ridiculous he looked.

“I hope the Huthk Walkerth come back and eat you,” he snarled at Eridan, and sped up his pace. The obnoxious sound of Eridan’s laughter followed him as they made their way slowly back home.


End file.
